Test Of English as a Foreign Language

The Test of English as a Foreign Language, more commonly known by its acronym TOEFL, is an examination used to evaluate the English-language ability of international students seeking to study at universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and numerous other countries. Since 2005, the test has been Internet-based (though some locations continue to offer a paper-delivered test) and includes four sections. Educational Testing Service (ETS), a private company, designs and oversees the exam, which over 40 million people worldwide have taken.

Overview

In 1962, a council composed of approximately thirty government officials and private-sector representatives convened to establish an examination to test the proficiency of international students seeking to study at American universities. Based on the recommendations of the group, the TOEFL was developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC, headed by Dr. Charles Ferguson, who eventually founded what became Stanford University’s Department of Linguistics.

The TOEFL was first administered by the Modern Language Association (MLA) during the 1963–64 school year and was made possible through funding from the Ford Foundation and the Danforth Foundation (1927 to 2011). In 1965, MLA turned administrative duties over to ETS and the College Board.

In its original format, the TOEFL was a five-part examination but, in 1976, was reduced to three parts. The format was revisited and modified slightly in 1995. In 1998, ETS began to move away from a paper-based test, introducing the computer-based test (CBT).

The CBT represented efforts to align the exam more closely with college curriculum and standards and real-world academic issues faced by nonnative English-language learners. Therefore, based on the recommendations of TOEFL’s fifteen-member board, ETS redesigned the test to better assess both competency in communication and students’ abilities to adapt to academic settings in which English was the only language in use. It also sought to provide a better model of assessment for students’ speaking and writing abilities. The CBT improved on the paper-based exam not only in terms of direct measures of aptitude but also in how the test could be administered, with shorter wait times between tests, unofficial scores displayed immediately following the completion of the test, ostensibly more accurate scoring, and a shorter time frame for reporting official scores to universities.

The CBT represented the technological bridge between the paper test, the primary format for over thirty years, and the Internet-based test (iBT), introduced in 2005. It became the most widely administered version of the exam. The iBT takes about two hours to complete and consists of four parts: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. For the reading section, students must engage in several short passages on academic topics and answer questions that test their comprehension. In the listening portion, students hear five-minute conversations, generally between a student and a teacher, and lectures. They are required to answer questions related to the content they have heard. For the speaking section, students are asked their opinions on miscellaneous topics and must also answer questions about a short listening segment. The writing portion has two components, one requiring students to write a short academic essay.

Other TOEFL tests include the TOEFL Junior Tests for younger learners, TOEFL iTP (Institutional Testing Program) for assessment in various settings, and TOEFL Essentials for a shorter examination of English language skills. These tests are regularly updated and revised to ensure accuracy and fairness.

The TOEFL exam is a requirement for international students wishing to study at many universities in countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. According to ETS's website, over 13,000 colleges and other institutions in more than 160 countries accept TOEFL scores. The integrative format highlighted in the iBT allows admissions officials as well as teachers and professors to assess student academic readiness better.

Bibliography

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